Personally, this year has been a topsy-turvy one. Since assuming editor duties back in March, I’ve written less, as my energy goes into directing a website that has grown, and grown again, and now has a staff some five times what it did when I began here just two years ago. I've done work I'm proud of, but it all amounts to barely 18 articles, not a lot in a year with so much interesting art and important news (you can review them all, Ben-19076">Ben-19076">Ben-19076">Ben-19076">Ben-19076">Ben-19076">Ben-19076">Ben-davis" target="_blank">here). In 2013, my resolution is to get to writing more, and with a capable features editor, Lori Fredrickson, I think I have more than just my own resolve behind me.

In the meantime, it hasn’t all been pushing papers in circles. In particular, what has made this year worthwhile has been the chance to work with a tremendously talented staff of writers, who have, week after week, labored hard to turn out essays, reviews, and reports that have been a joy to edit. I've put together a list with a few of my personal favorites:

* Back in June, Terri Ciccone — our social media director and also a contributor — put together a thoroughly reported piece, with dealers and artists weighing in on whether Bushwick had already passed the point of diminishing returns as an art neighborhood, given the sheer velocity of gentrification.

* Rachel Corbett offered the best analysis I know of the issues involved in the recently passed “New York Arts and Cultural Affairs Law,” which seeks to provide increased legal protections for artists in their interactions with dealers. Given recent scandals, that's important information indeed — and Rachel's story also happens to have one of the most memorable kickers I can remember, to boot.

* Market reporter Shane Ferro — who left the site at the beginning of fall for a sojourn on the West Coast — offered a Ben-19076">Ben-19076">Ben-19076">Ben-19076">Ben-19076">Ben-19076">Ben-19076">Beneath-the-high-end-hype-art-prices-are-treading-water">sharp analysis of the auction market, showing how headline-grabbing records at the top end masked stagnation lower down. You can expect more such analysis in the new year — Shane returns to our team in January.

* For market watchers, Judd Tully’s many, many, many impeccable auction and fair reports continued this year to provide essential analysis. I wouldn’t know where to begin in picking one (“The Scream” sale?) — but I will say that it was a pleasure to actually get to see him in action in a pair of video reports from Frieze and Art Basel Miami Beach.

* In the wake of Sandy, Sara Roffinoventured to Greenpoint to document the damage to the studios that called the neighborhood home, offering a poignant look at the toll the storm had taken on artists, some of whom lost their life's work to the waters.

* Finally, any assessment of 2012 wouldn’t be complete without mention of the many projects for which the entire team has pitched in on, in various ways. The most notable was our ranked list of “The 100 Most Iconic Artworks of the Last 5 Years,” which the full staff helped assemble before it was voted on by a team including ARTINFO UK's Coline Milliard, ARTINFO China's Madeleine O'Dea, and Modern Painters editor Daniel Kunitz, alongside outside judges Jen Graves, Martha Schwendener, Walter Robinson, and Christian Viveros-Faune.